Study on Evaluation of Escape Route by Evacuation Simulation

It is important to design effective escape routes in ships and offshore structure which can provide smooth escape of passengers and crew without any congestion and confusion. After the tragedy of ro-ro passenger ferry “Estonia”, requirement on evaluation of effectiveness of escape routes in ro-ro passenger ferries in its early design stage has been added to SOLAS Convention. This study has evaluated the effectiveness of an escape simulation program of grouping model of evacuation in comparison between the calculation results of evacuation by the simulation and results of actual evacuation trial carried out on a passenger ferry of 10, 000 tons using about 400 people. It has been found by the simulation and the trial that cascaded starting time of evacuation from each compartment may result in smoothness or congestion in escape routes. It has been also found that the simulation could understand the flow, congestion and finish of various case of evacuation. Calculations by the simulation program was also carried out for various scenarios such as a case of fire in daytime and night on a type ship which has 777 passengers and 55 crew. It has been found, as the results of the simulation, that congestion points do not depend on casualty cases and that congestion may occur when condition in downstream of escape routes is unknown even evacuation is taken place as planned.